Linda 的个人资料Enjoy every minute of my...照片日志列表更多  |  工具 帮助 |
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11月27日 New York! New York!（我们两个真是土人，每次去纽约都好似进城过年，非得记录一下子。虽然不过40多分钟车程外的地方）
昨晚上早早睡下，因为有今天去纽约的计划。8过晚上还是免不了醒过来想工作上的事情，艾，人生苦短，工作太长。而且一例是7点半起床。NPR的storycorp节目今天的声音非常熟悉，我只赶着听了个尾巴，结束后报道果然是还有两个月就要退休的小布什，采访他的是劳拉布什。我先前光注意辨别是谁的声音了，没注意他们在说啥，不过可以想见布什退休后估计也就做做慈善阿，演讲阿，写书啊，这些非常有意义的事情。storycorp这档节目估计会越做愈好。先前看过那个founder的书，当日那个医学院新生不过22岁，正是选择人生的边缘上，如果他没有选择作记者，不过让这个世界多了一名医生，而做了storycorp这件事情，却让更多普通人的声音被其他人听见（George Bush是exception，大部分录音的人是非常普通的人），在这个物欲横流的社会，如此温情脉脉的举动，实在是体现了listening is an action of love。
到底是感恩节，今天的高速路上车非常少，收费口有无数车在排队，近了看了一下果然是很多外地没有easypass的车。不过两三个月的时间，油价从接近4块钱掉到2块不到，加上航空业很不友好，做road trip的车真不少。（我们这个x'mas也打算这样干）。收音机里是令人吃惊的还在继续的印度恐怖主义分子对孟买的袭击事件，穆斯林可真会挑日子啊。
今天的地铁站人多几乎可以和上海1号线相比，据说因为今天是macy的thanskgiving parade今天纽约城有3m人。虽然我对上海的记忆是6年多之前的，但我一点也不怀疑上海的节假日只有比这里更可怕。不过街上的人海还好。估计纽约本地人都赶着homecoming去和家人过节去了。我们一边躲开parade的人流，一边猜人：1）穿羽绒服身材庞大的是美国乡下人，刚刚从election的swing states来的。2）穿了羊绒大衣身材苗条的是纽约本地或者周边的tristate的人；3）穿皱皱巴巴材质不明的大衣但身材不错的是欧洲人，冒着美元升值被宰的危险来纽约的。为了verify我们的猜想，我们紧赶慢赶听他们说话的口音。恩，还不错，基本上十有八九是对的。
虽然我出门前喝了牛奶，但还是要去吃纽约著名的早餐。最近几个月我们两个比较喜欢节假日在外面吃早餐，感觉比较有气氛。虽然土司煎鸡蛋培根并没有生煎馒头小混沌来的亲切，但冬天吃早餐看人读周日报纸还是很舒服的一件事情，我们镇上的店早餐味道很一般，但大落地窗，外面风景很不错（回头贴张照片上来）。纽约的早餐店waiter照例蠢笨，不过味道非常好。连土司也烤得香脆松软，真是惊喜。
吃的暖暖的，出门逛街就很有动力。其实今天大部分店都没有开门。我们继续有一搭没一搭的看人，如果有开的店就冲进去乱逛，结果又撞上了上次逛过的一直念念不忘的饰品店。恩，价格和样子都非常动人。我一边懊恼着最近从jcrew买的多件尚未用的价格却是这里的5到10倍的首饰（当然并没有看到仿制品，不然该吐血了），一边得意地挑选。结果最后要了6样，非常喜欢。
买了喜欢的东西，差不多就要到午饭时间了。我们昨晚上就商量要去已经吃过1001次的ali baba土耳其店。谁知道10几条街走过去，居然关门！我们倒也不算懊恼，因为知道会大吃一顿的，所以需要好好动动预先消耗一点卡路里。然后去找上次吃过的中国店，有鲫鱼萝卜丝汤的。这样的寒风里喝一点微辣的热汤，一定很棒。照例的我们两个老早就不记得那个中国店的地址了，不过我还是不算disappointed，因为每次去中国店都吃了一身的油烟，也不算太值得。在中城的日本公司商务区终于找到一间开着的店，其实是我们上次吃过定食的。某人不能喝酒，我就自己要了点hot sake，味道相当不错，非常暖身。某人要的猪骨汤面却是非常令人惊艳，那个猪骨汤浓香鲜甜，烟火气十足，我立刻不要自己的砂锅汤面改捞某人碗里的汤了。最后，小小的一听热酒，我只sip了一小杯，那碗猪骨汤，我是几乎完全给喝完了。（完全忘了我的减肥计划），而且意尤未竟完全可以再干一碗。
热汤毕，我们往本来要去的剧场街，结果看过parade的人们早早霸占了所有的show的队伍，看来我们想看show的计划要取消了。我们本来还准备去museums，不过似乎时间也不多了。于是我们就逛了逛一些玩具店（生意好好），体验了一把童心，再各自喝了巧克力或者capaccino，就打道回府了。
回去的路上，身后的纽约的暮色升起来了，灯火灿烂，让人感觉生活很美好（尤其是还有三天才上班）。
11月26日 finally - thanksgivingTry to type in Chinese but failed.
I have been too busy at work in the last few weeks, even though fruitless.
Anyway I have still vacation days left for this year, and I had to work from home today. I guess I was too excited with my WII sports to control my balance - I fell.... After 2+ weeks, my weight stayed in the +-2 pound range...no change...
11月16日 One week after WII Fit - Does Wii fit help lose weightAfter owning my wii for one week, I am pleased to announce that there are certain progress that I have made on my fitness plan.
Stats:
11/16/09 (8 days after being a proud wii owner)
BMI: (-0.44)
Weight:(-2.6) - of course I can argue that is within the normal variation you would see within one day
Fitness age:(-6) which is a silly tool
Total exercises hours: 10 hours - I probably spend over half a time on yoga, anyway, to lose weight was not my primary intention, I just need a tool to help me exercise. From that perspective, Wii certainly fulfills that. I have not changed my diet habit very much, everyday I probably took one or two cookies or a few chocolate bars, nevertheless, I certainly no longer have too much time eat after dinner time...devoting myself to Wii exercises instead.
Key takeaway-
11月13日 The importance of presentation skillsEvery day of this week we lock ourselves in a dark room and evaluate another vendor for their capability on an important project. The investment of this project is quite big. When I was in my previous role, my annual project budget was maximum $3mm, and this project is a few times of my previous projects. And, hey, it is a cost-center, not a revenue center. No wonder we have to take a group approach and evaluate it as a team - or no one is willing to take the responsibility individually.
I always know that vendors usually will send their A team to presentation, and over time we learn differentiate the presentation skills from the capability of the vendors. Difficult as it may sound, it works most of the time. However, I was still surprised with the effect of a good presenter (or person) can make.
The vendor who presented yesterday was one of the industry leaders. As such, I was shocked that they had such a lousy presenter who (unforunately, a 30+ woman) did not know how to present, poor selling skills, and horrible handle of the questions from audiences. After 30 minutes down the presention, she completely lost me, and the rest of the room. I felt the underlying application she and her colleagues (the other people by the way are OK) tried to show us might be a fine one, however it is not likely we would invite them again for the next round. Before this formal presentation, we have met her colleagues multiple times, I came in with very good impression of them, however, she being the main presenter is just a disaster.
I walked away yesterday with frustration, as the first three days presented the three leaders, and so far we did not see any applications which can meet even 80% of our requirement. Every one has their issues. There is no best alternative, while status quo is not acceptable.
Today was a completely different story. The vendor we talked to have zero industry experiences. However every industry has their similarities. The presenter was phenomenal, knowing his stuff, skillfully showing us all the potential tasks we could use their platform for, engaging audiences in the conversation. The application itself is very flexible but as the same time not complex, which is a unique combination of features. It is such a small company that it has to partner with another big consulting company in order to knock at our door. However the other big company had vague, if any usefullness during the presentation, and not sure about their role of the engagement either. I started to realize that this small company's value is of course in their excellent product, but as important are their people. One question we asked was "how many of you are in your company" which caused pleasant laugh.
Although I doubt we would actually work with them at the end. Conservative as we are, we rarely put our bet in unstable situation. If it is my own project or my own company, I am willing to invest on this small company. I probably will keep an eye on them - if they are able to keep their people and further develop their business, I am certain in a couple of years they would become a formidable player in their function area. 11月12日 BitchyI cannot imagine once I am older, I mean, when I am actually in my 40+ or even 50+, what kind of professional image should I present myself? I found it became increazingly true that most female professionals, especially executives, are more or less bitchy, in order to convey the idea of being assertive. Behaviors such as 1) cut off people; 2) saying "No offense, but....", 3) Raise voice, loud and being heard, are more or less prevalent.
Horrible as it sound, there does not appear to be another choice. The alternate senario is that you appear weak, or not confident, trying to be funny but actually not... 11月10日 New version of MckinseyquarterlyI am a long-time reader of Mckinseyquarterly.
几乎是八年刚开始读的时候，几乎完全出于学习英语的需求。时至今日，我仍然不能够写出那样严谨严肃的文字，但大部分时候的目的是开阔自己的眼界，不至于只是限于本行业和本function。行行相通，尤其到了globalzation的今天，当年我mba的时候大家对globalization还在争论pros & cons，现在只能是embracement，accompanied with the trend，大公司的弊病比比皆是，各个国家的问题也各个相似。咨询公司更加有生存的必要，however，无法在一个公司解决的问题也一样无法在另一个公司解决，相反，在某公司能顺利实施的并不见得一定适合另一文化。
几个月之前被邀请作focus group discussion，with the objective of improving the userability of Mckinseyquarterly website。在working day冒着traffic跑到纽约，完全是出于want my voice heard的愿望。2个半小时的访谈并没有太多意外。熟悉市场调研惯例的我知道moderator一定有些失望，因为we did not follow the interview guide，意见完全是一边倒的将mckinseyquarter独立于mckinsey.com，并且一再要求社区化。
不过几个月过去，无意今天log on，居然已经看见新版的mckinseyquarterly。当时这个project采取的样本除了纽约外，还有伦敦和香港，算是主要用户的可能所在地可以选择的很好的样本城市。初初一看，加了很多audio & video，classifcations更多，将很多原先被埋没的文章重见天日。这次刊首的访谈是IDEO的主管，很不象mckinsey惯常的风格，interactive section则是google CEO的video，种种这些似乎暗示了quarterly想要创新的决心。mickinsey.com和mckinsey global institute终于独立于mckinsequarterly，而且还增加了china.mckinseyquarterly，真令人惊喜。这个可是on top of region categorization中，india和china各自是其中的一个子栏目。it does not take a lot of wisedom to guess that China is definitely one of the most important target for Mckinsey to develop its future business.
联想到中国政府才publish的New Deal smimulus package，I have every confidence that China will become the launch machine for the world economy in the following 20-30 years. (if implemented and operated with good hands) 11月9日 Wii & Wii fit在观望了n久以后，我终于在本周末投身于wii的阵营。
我们周六的时候打了无数电话，比如常见的bestbuy, circuit city和target早已断货。最后还是在我们惯常去的short hills mall买到。加税一共369美元，完全是平价，也没有折扣，不过快乐和健康都是无价的。这还是本人和某人的第一个游戏机呢，多珍贵的第一次啊
 Lesson learned?早知道wii fit那末好玩，我早该买啦。
Lesson 2?任天堂深知对于几乎所有人运动都是痛苦的，于是不断personalization，不断motivation，人人才有能力坚持下去。
as expected，本人平衡能力几乎为零，力量弱的不得了，也就瑜伽和有氧运动可以玩一下。某人平衡和力量都不错，瑜伽比较差。有氧没有我强。
fitness 年龄？啊，我已经是51岁的老太太了
 估计这样的兴趣可以持续个把个月，反正美东冬日漫漫，我们有得可玩的。 11月8日 Visit Lancaster PA据说两百年前欧洲人来到美国的时候，有一群人，像所有思乡心切的人一样，将他们的周遭以他们的旧镇命名。
两百年过去了，新阿姆斯特丹（新约克镇）变成了纽约，兰卡斯特还是lancaster。
我们这个周末的weekend road trip是兰卡斯特镇。貌似很好听的名字是不是，其实不过是具有极强宗教意义的一群amish人居住的美国乡村。
世道黑暗，或者amish人坚信如此，对于现代文明，包括电视，娱乐和汽车，通通与他们无关，他们几百年如一日的生活在他们的农庄里，与世隔绝，相信这个是可以让他们免受现代文明污染的唯一方式。所有的男女老少都戴帽子，穿古朴的布衫或者裙子，没有计划生育的概念。当我们看见他们的时候，我和amish小孩子一样惊奇——我很少见过那样简单奇怪的人，而他们一定也很少见到东方人。
农庄的动物也是最快乐的一群，他们的母鸡是真正的cage-free，每个人的窝里都得意地趴着一两个蛋。我看到了这辈子看到的最快乐的一只donkey，大概还是小朋友，大脑袋，小身体，它欢快的跳到栅栏的这头，蹭人家的手撒娇，然后再咕嘟咕嘟的跳到另外一头，这样来回了无数次，周围的大人小孩都哈哈大笑，这还不算，donkey跑的更加快活了——一直到，bia ji，它摔倒啦！我从来没见过小动物居然还能跑不稳而摔倒。donkey呆了一下，坐了几秒钟，立刻又刮刮得跑开了。
今天一例又下雨了，黑白的奶牛一例的躺在草地上吃草，像我在瑞士见到的一样。秋色越发浓烈，红叶黄叶都灿烂的发亮，即便是雨天也还是闪闪发光。
回来的时候还特别好运的接到了sex & city的电影dvd，然后花了10多分钟摘我的隐形眼镜也摘不下来，我们冲到镇上的医生结果已经关门了，然后在洗脸池边上发现某只眼镜的尸体，原来我一早就没有戴上过。真糊涂啊。
流水账毕。 11月5日 President ObamaNo surprise, he won.
All the TV channels last night was about the vote results. (I could not even watch my House). Although we knew he would win, when seeing 207:135 (Obama:Mccain), I was still disappointed. Everyone knows that Obama is an in, while the rest is an out. What I want? Even when the new channel reported college towns such as...South Bend...is now Blue! I was still surprised...then we turned off TV, I know I have more things to worry about that the result of this game.
Another four years to go!!! 11月3日 西风不识相盗用三毛的这个散文标题，其实说的是在工作中的同胞。
当年读那散文，奇怪三毛为啥和同胞这样过意不去：我那时候才又明白了一个道理，对洋鬼子可以不忍，对自己同胞，可要百忍，吃下一百个忍字，不去回嘴。
等到我自己去国若干年，每一年都会见到一两个让我很头痛的新的同胞，我才知道，原来如此。
上一周非常frustrating的报告，终于在周五作完了，结果今天——报告错了，而且是在我已经publish后发现的问题。其中的一个关键部分，不过是和我合作的中国同事没有作检查，到了我的手中，我的assumptions当然她一定是对过了的。anyway，长话短说，作为owner，我得完全重做。在corporate工作的人都知道，作group report，最重要的是teamwork，如果中间一个环节出问题，接下来只能完全重来。我的中国同事睁着无辜的眼睛，好像很奇怪这个为啥会发生。如果换成是美国同事，我会说, I hope that you take the responsibility and make sure that it will never happen again.
在瑞士的时候，也曾经有过一位team member是中国同事，and he is the last one I wanted to team with， simple as that。我当然不是唯一一个抱怨的人，可惜任何一个公司要fire 人都是难上加难，等到他终于被赶走的时候，我已经回到美国了。
在美国生活的伊始，我曾经和一个中国女孩做过室友，让我之痛苦，我几乎要写一篇“我的芳邻“来控诉。
恭喜昨天是某位小朋友大婚的日子，嗯，看到照片了，新郎新娘一样好看。没法当面恭喜，礼物也一定是太晚了。本来要写一篇婚后双方互敬互爱的贺文的，后来想想啥时候也轮到我老气横秋的教育人家了。再说了，婚姻如穿鞋，自己舒服顶顶要紧，别人的意见也不见得可取。
祝福花好月圆，美满幸福啊。
11月1日 Reunion call亲爱的大宝宝有心给我发了上个周末大学同学十周年重聚的照片。我心底免不了有点惭愧。说老实话，一下子回去一趟也不是不可能，这次机会也是非常难得，可一下见到很多人。工作，永远是做不完的，no timing is good timing。我只是发怵一旦回去了，一定是要先回杭州，牵牵绊绊一堆，没有正常情况下度假的样子，回来工作也会加倍辛苦，这一年努力也没有个交待。我对自己过意不去。
照片拍的非常好，岁月在我的同学们脸上几乎不着痕迹。一下子我非常想念很多十年未见的同学。虽然不是和每个人都有很深的感情，但毕竟朝夕相处那样敏感的四年，尤其和女孩子们，一定有很多可以说的知心话。（往日里我千里迢迢打电话过去也不是不经常的）。只是我自己知道我还是在变化了的，一如别人。
我嘲笑自己，这些年来蜕变成一个怪胎了，中不中，西不西。或者我可以宽容一点，见到我的同学们应该还是同样的高兴，因为毕竟大家经历的事情大同小异，只是当年如果没有成为挚友，估计时空相隔后了也不会，当年如果有一定的感情，再捡起来估计也不难。这些年，我少了一点sentimental，多了一点pragmatic。我对真正功用的人还是觉得不舒服。很难说是我变得更挑剔了呢，还是我不愿意浪费我的心思去将就别人。 |
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